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HP Envy 14 Spectre available now, starts at $1,399
Weeks after teasing the masses with bits of what it could become, the HP Envy 14 Spectre is quietly hitting the virtual shelves today. A whopping $1,399 (with an instant discount courtesy of Meg Whitman & Co.) will get you the entry level model. If that's indeed the route you're willing to take, you can be walking out with Intel's Core i5-2467M processor and HD Graphics 3000, as well as NFC capabilities, a 128GB SSD, 4GB of memory and a 14-inch BrightView Infinity LED (1366 x 768) 1600 x 900 Radiance display. Needless to say, if you feel like this isn't quite up to par with your standards, you can head over to the source and customize one to your heart's content. Meanwhile, you can check out our own preview of the Envy 14 Spectre to decide if it's the right fit for you. Update: Looks like HP's product page went live with a typo. As reported when the Spectre was first announced, it will come standard with a 1600 x 900 Radiance display, not a 1366 x 768 BrightView Infinity LED screen. HP has since updated its page accordingly.
Toshiba Satellite U840 goes official for Australia, still waiting on its US passport
While Toshiba's stateside reps had us convinced its 14-inch Ultrabook wouldn't see the light of day until sometime in June, that message of withholding apparently didn't make it Down Under. Outed by its Australian arm today, that would-be Portege is actually the company's Satellite U840. We already knew the electronics giant had intended on shuffling this Windows 7 machine out under that brand umbrella back at CES, but now we have a $1,500 AUD (about $1,608 USD) price tag to go with a list of confirmed specs. Officially on deck for this aluminum-bodied laptop are an Intel Core i5-2467M processor and HD Graphics 3000 GPU, 720p-capable 1366 x 768 LED display, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB of storage, in addition to ports for HDMI, mic, headphone and USB (1x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0). We still don't know much about the capacity of the six cell battery powering this svelte notebook entry or a concrete landing date for that matter. But from the looks of this Aussie product page, that release is creeping mighty close.
Distro Issue 25: Ultrabook overload, Snap Analysis and Gina Trapani
Distro is 25... weeks old, today! And to celebrate we're debuting a new page that puts you, our readers, front and center. We've been sending out questions over various social networking channels and collecting your answers for the inaugural run of Snap Analysis. Among other things, you weighed in on RIM's CEO switch up, as did our own Darren Murph in his editorial, "RIM's New CEO Isn't the Shakeup It Needed." We have more editorializing coming your way from the desk of Donald Melanson, who's taking the Ultrabook marketing hype to task. Also in this issue, we test drive the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 and review the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 and Huawei's Honor. Lifehacker's Gina Trapani takes on the Distro Q&A, IRL goes back to CES and Ross Rubin explores Apple's education push. There's a lot to soak up in this issue, so hit the appropriate link below and get to reading!
Editorial: Don't call it an ultrabook
Every year at CES, the tech-watching masses engage in a bit of trendspotting -- an attempt to identify the one or two big themes of the show that may or may not come to define the year in technology. Some years those are easy to spot (tablets and 3D TV were two big ones recently), and other times they involve a bit of guesswork. This year, one of the most oft-cited trends is the "ultrabook." Judging from the companies' announcements at the show and some of the coverage they've received, you might think that's a new sort of device or a radically new type of laptop. But, really, they're just laptops. Small, thin laptops -- but laptops. It's actually Ultrabook, with a capital "U," and a (TM). The name is a wholly-owned creation of Intel, and the hype you've seen for them at CES is only just the beginning. Intel is reportedly planning its biggest advertising push in eight years to promote Ultrabooks, and it's clearly already done a decent job of bringing hardware manufacturers on board the bandwagon. How many new "laptop" announcements do you remember from CES?
AMD's Ultrabook competitor to focus on price, undercut Intel
When AMD showed off its upcoming Trinity APUs at CES the company was pretty light on the details. We're still stuck holding our breath for specs, but DigiTimes is reporting some alleged info on pricing. According to the report, AMD's "ultrathin" laptops will hit shelves priced between $100 and $200 less than comparably-equipped Intel machines. Of course, the folks from Sunnyvale have traditionally hit Chipzilla on pricing rather than performance (except during a brief period in the aughts when Intel got lost in the Netburst woods), so dirt-cheap AMD "Ultrabooks" wouldn't come as much of a surprise. Then again, pressure on both the laptop and tablet front could cause the Santa Clara crew to reevaluate its pricing strategy leaving its competition to either further cut profit margins or find a new angle of attack.Update: AMD has provided a statement on this story, certainly not denying things but clarifying that it isn't going to enforce any minimum specs or prices. Also, that "ultrathin" moniker isn't new and won't define any particular type of laptop like Intel's Ultrabook is attempting to do.
CES 2012: Ultrabook round-up
CES is drawing to a close, and the gadgets released here will define the market for the year. Intel is betting the farm on its Ultrabook concept as its hardware partners continued to push out the first real wave of laptops designed to take on the MacBook Air (who thought we'd be saying that four years ago?). Whatever your feelings on these devices, given Santa Clara's billion-dollar advertising push, you won't be able to ignore them this year. So, let's take a look at five of the best products that rolled off the keynotes into the hands of our editors.
Toshiba Portege M930 prototype hands-on (video)
And the hybrid devices keep on coming. Sitting high on a shelf in Microsoft's booth, hidden among the earthly clamshell laptops, is the Toshiba Portege M930, a prototype whose 13-inch screen slides down to completely cover the keyboard. All told, it's awfully reminiscent of the ASUS Eee Pad Slider -- complete with a propped-up display and squat keyboard. The keyboard is so narrow, in fact, that Toshiba had to forgo a traditional trackpad and instead put a touch sensor and buttons over on the right edge. Though it's a bit heavy for an Ultrabook, at 4.2 pounds, it has some Ultrabook-grade innards, including a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, Intel HD 3000 graphics and a 256GB solid-state drive. Take a tour around the device and you'll also find the usual array of ports: dual USB 2.0 sockets, HDMI, an Ethernet jack, an SD reader and separate headphone and mic ports.Even when we previewed the Slider we weren't keen on sacrificing that much deck space in the name of bold industrial design and here, too, the keys feel unnecessarily crowded. The good news is that the hinge mechanism feels smooth and controlled -- not too tight, but rigid enough to inspire confidence in its build quality. That 13.3-inch screen also looks bright enough, though we imagine that 1280 x 800 resolution will be a turn-off for more than a few of you. Unfortunately, the M930 is so early its development that the touchscreen wasn't even working, though it responds just fine to the pen, which stows in the back of the laptop. No word on pricing or availability (Toshiba isn't even showing it at its booth), but even if this thing never materializes we've got some hands-on photos and video below.Mat Smith contributed to this report
Ultrabook or tablet? Compal shows off hybrid reference design (video)
We knew CES would bring a slew of Ultrabooks, but who could have predicted 2012 would be the year of the franken-gadget? So far this week, we've seen Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga, two hybrids from Gigabyte and a pair of 13- and 5.5-inch tablet prototypes from Toshiba. And that's saying nothing of Intel's Nikiski prototype and its promise of accelerometer-based gaming on Ultrabooks. With that as our backdrop, we have the Compal QAV20, a reference design sitting in Intel's booth, alongside all the plain, months-old laptops we've already reviewed. From afar, it looks like the Samsung Series 7 Slate, but up close you'll see it has a larger, 13.3-inch, 1366 x 768 display, along with a keyboard dock. On the inside, meanwhile, it packs a Core i5 ULV CPU -- the same guts you'll find inside other Ultrabooks.In our brief hands-on, we were stunned by how light the fiber glass device feels -- certainly, it's much less dense than the similarly sized Yoga. The dock itself is home to various ports, including Ethernet, dual USB 2.0 sockets, HDMI and a headphone jack. And though it's no Transformer Prime dock, it's still light enough that you shouldn't have problem stuffing it in your bag. No word on what, if any, OEMs will re-badge this, but no matter -- we've gotten video and photos for you to peruse even if this thing never makes it to market. And no, we didn't film this in the Batcave; Intel just loves it some blue mood lighting.
A closer look at AcerCloud (video)
Acer unveiled so much hardware this week that it's easy to forget it also teased a cloud-based storage service. In brief, AcerCloud, allows you to remotely access whatever's on your Acer laptop, even if it's asleep or in hibernation mode, and even if you're not connected to the same WiFi network. Storage is unlimited, and you can upload music, photos, videos and documents. Also, it's free. So how does this work, if not over WiFi? Whenever possible, AcerCloud will try to create a peer-to-peer connection between your laptop and phone, but when that fails a security token inside the laptop allows the cloud service to play matchmaker between the notebook and the app, which is of course tied to your account. At launch, there will be separate mobile applications for music, photos, et cetera. It will be Android-only, though Acer reps tell us they intend to to create versions for Windows Phone and even iOS (assuming Apple approves it). They also say they're considering developing a file manager where you can access all your content, and not just music or pictures. For now, at least, the discrete apps are intuitively designed, and the best part is that you can play back media inside of them. Good news for anyone not satisfied with their Android phone's native music player. Expect this to start rolling out in North America and China in the second quarter, followed by a worldwide release sometime in Q4. It'll also become an eventual staple on Acer PCs, including things like all-in-ones, but in the beginning it will be exclusive to Acer's Ultrabooks. Until Q2 rolls around, though, you can head past the break for a short demo of the music app. We hope you're not too sick of Lady Gaga. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Acer Aspire S5 hands-on, revisited (now with video)
The last time we reported on the Aspire S5, Acer's sophomore Ultrabook, your favorite reviews editor was throwing elbows to get a first look. The company's press conference here at CES was packed to the gills with journalists and industry analysts, dozens of whom were jostling for some hands-on time after the event wrapped. It didn't help that there were two S5s on display, and that the demo area was tricked out with green mood lighting.So when we had a chance to play with the S5 again, this time in a quiet, sunny room, we knew a second look was in order. For the most part, our early impressions haven't changed. Its all-metal chassis still feels solid, and we continue to be wary of that shallow keyboard. That 15mm-thick chassis is as impressive as ever -- maybe even more so, now that we know half of this year's Ultrabooks are likely to be larger. But man, is this thing even more beautiful in the light. We already concluded it had a more uniformly premium design than the older Aspire S3, but in a brightly lit room it's easier to appreciate the slightly brushed texture on the lid and palm rest, the seamless, spartan design and how well that black paint job complements the thin chassis. Below, find a few extra hands-on shots added in with the old, and continue on past the break for a video tour, complete with a demo of that motorized drop-down port cover -- something we didn't get to show you the first time around.Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook: IT-friendly, 128GB SSD and backlit keyboard standard, arrives in February for $999
You didn't think Dell was going to sit out the Ultrabook fad, did you? We'll never know exactly what the hold-up was, but whatever the company's excuse it finally has something to compete with the likes of the MacBook Air and ASUS Zenbook UX31. The company just announced the XPS 13, which weighs in at a shade less than three pounds (2.99, to be exact) and has a wedge profile that tapers from .71 inches to .24 (18 to 6mm). With a starting price of $1,000, it sports an aluminum lid and carbon fiber chassis -- a material we wish more Ultrabook makers would incorporate. Though it has a 13-inch screen, it's the kind of panel with bezels so narrow that Dell was able to build a chassis small enough for a 12-inch system. Put bluntly, expect this to be one of the most compact Ultrabooks around (though not the lightest).What's that? You want technical details too? At the entry level, it'll come with a Core i3 i5 processor, 128GB SSD, 4GB of RAM and backlit keyboard, though you'll also be able to upgrade to a 256SSD and either a Core i5 or i7 CPU (Sandy Bridge at launch, with Ivy Bridge to follow in a refresh later this year). Other specs include a 300-nit, 1366 x 768, Gorilla Glass display; Intel HD 3000 graphics; a 47Wh battery rated for up to eight hours; Bluetooth 3.0; and Intel's Smart Connect and Rapid Start technologies. As HP is doing with the Folio 13, Dell plans to sell this in both its consumer and business channels; accordingly, the machine will be offered with TPM, asset tagging, corporate images and custom BIOS to keep the IT guys happy. It'll be available at the end of February, but if you need to know as much as you can now, we've got hands-on photos below, along with impressions after the break.
HP Envy 14 Spectre official: 3.97 pounds, NFC, Radiance display and glass chassis, arriving February 8 for $1,400
As far as product launches go, this one wasn't very subtle. Just last week, HP's PR team widely disseminated a brief video teasing a wispy laptop called the Spectre. We couldn't parse too many details for all the shadows and quick-cuts, but we gathered this much: it seemed to be thin, and far too sleek to be just another business-centric Ultrabook. Nope, it would be arresting, bold and highly stylized. And this time, it would be meant for mainstream consumers.Well, folks: we were right (except for the thin part, anyway). HP just unveiled the Envy 14 Spectre, and is billing it as a "premium Ultrabook." Which makes sense, since the laptop starts at $1,400, making it even pricier than the 13-inch MacBook Air (to say nothing of all those $900 ultraportables hitting the market). Above all, the company is justifying that price with a daring glass design, which HP insists makes the laptop more durable, not less so. In addition to cost, though, the trade-off to all that armor is some extra heft: the Spectre weighs in at 3.97 pounds and measures 20mm thick, making it the chubbiest 13-inch Ultrabook we've seen yet.So what does $1,400 get you, aside from a memorable design? We're told the laptop comes standard with a 14-inch, 1600 x 900 Radiance Display (hurrah!), Core i5-2467M CPU, 4GB of RAM, a nine-hour battery, backlit keyboard, carrying case and -- get this -- an NFC chip built into the palm rest for transferring URLs from your phone's browser. Other bells and whistles include Intel Wireless Display, HP's CoolSense technology, Beats, HP Wireless Audio, full copies of Photoshop and Premiere Elements and a two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security. Got that, guys? Upgrade options include a 256GB SSD and an extra 4GB of RAM, but other than that, what you see is what you get (and to be fair, you get a lot).The Spectre will go on sale in the US on February 8, continuing on to Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Chile and Mexico in March. For now, though, head past the break for a walk-through video and some early impressions from yours truly.
Samsung unveils 13- and 14-inch Series 5 Ultrabooks, starting at $899 (hands-on)
Depending on your point of view, Samsung was either late to the Ultrabook party, or perhaps just a bit early. Although the 2.8-pound Series 9 was a sight to behold when it first came out last year, it arrived shortly before Intel kicked off its Ultrabook campaign, and failed to match all of Chipzilla's early-stage requirements. This year, Sammy's back with a redesigned Series 9... along with two laptops it's actually calling Ultrabooks. The notebooks, both of which fall under the company's Series 5 line of products, and which recently surfaced online, include your requisite 13-incher, along with a larger 14-inch model with an optical drive.Both machines will have Core i5 processors, 4GB of RAM, eight-hour batteries and Intel integrated graphics, along with the same matte, 300-nit (1366 x 768) display that we loved so much in the Series 5 Chromebook. And though the 13-incher will have a 128GB SSD option, each comes standard with a standard 500GB 5,400RPM drive with 16GB of express cache for faster boot times and application-launching. You may recall this feature from the Series 7 Chronos laptop, except this time around, Sammy doubled the amount of flash memory paired with the HDD.Another thing the two systems have in common: they're each denser than the early Ultrabooks we saw, with the 14-inch model coming in at 3.95 pounds, and the 13-incher tipping the scales at 3.5 pounds (a full fifth of a pound heavier than the HP Folio!). At least that girth comes with an unsparing port selection: Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 sockets and an SD slot. And that's just the 13-inch version: its big brother adds an optical drive, VGA output and a larger memory card reader. The pair will be available January 30th, starting at $899 for the 13-inch model and $949 for the 14-inch version. (The 13-inch configuration with the 128GB SSD will ring in at $1,099.) We expect to get our hands on final review units soon enough, but since we've already scored a few minutes of hands-on time, we've got photos and first impressions for you to peruse right this second.
Intel partnering with Nuance to bring voice recognition to Ultrabooks
So far in the last hour, we've learned that future Ultrabooks will have NFC, possibly larger screens and touchscreens (maybe even touch-enabled palm rests). Well, we've got one more marquee feature to add to the list: Intel just announced that it's partnering with Nuance to bring voice recognition to Ultrabooks. And it sounds like Intel's vision is comprehensive: the company envisions consumers being able to launch applications, compose emails, update social networks and control media playback. During the keynote, Intel PC client head Mooly Eden even said he would one day like to speak to the computer and have this words appear in a different language. Will that be a feature in the 1.0 product? We'll have to see when it starts hitting Ultrabooks later this year. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Intel shows off Nikiski prototype with sprawling touchscreen decking out the palm rest (video)
Is this not the craziest thing we've seen at this year's CES? Behold the Nikiski: an Intel prototype with a see-through touchpad that stretches across the entire palm rest. It's unclear who makes the laptop, but Intel was keen to gush about that sprawling touch panel. Mr. Eden demonstrated some effective palm rejection, so that if your hands brush the touchscreen while you're typing, you won't lose control of the cursor. If this seems senseless, given how spacious trackpads already are, know that this panel doubles as a secondary display that can show webpages and other content when the laptop is shut. It looks like Intel's got it on display here for the press to play with, so we'll be getting hands-on as soon as we can. Update: We snagged a quick hands-on. Hit the gallery for a peek. Update 2: Now with video!
Intel: 75-plus Ultrabooks coming in 2012, 50 percent of them will have 14- and 15-inch screens
Make no mistake: this isn't just the CES of Ultrabooks; it's the year for these thin, light, inexpensive MacBook Air clones. While speaking to a packed house here at CES, Intel PC client chief Mooly Eden just dropped a telling stat: so far, 75-plus Ultrabooks are set to launch in 2012. Of those, 50 percent will have 14- and 15-inch displays - a clear bid to win over mainstream consumers who feel they need a more screen real estate for watching movies or aren't ready to part with optical drives, discrete graphics and other specs befitting mainstream laptops. Don't say we didn't warn you. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Intel demos Ultrabooks with multitouch displays, games using an accelerometer
Well, this was probably inevitable, wasn't it? We're here at Intel's Ultrabook CES keynote, where PC client head honcho Mooly Eden just showed off Ultrabooks with touchscreen displays. No convertible form factors, just yet, but clamshells with multitouch screens -- you know, the kind of thing we marveled over when the TouchSmart tm2 came out two CES' ago. Sounds predictable enough, right? Well, get this: after he was done swiping the display, using pinch to zoom to magnify webpages, he launched a game, and used the accelerometer in the laptop to fly a plane into the horizon. That's right: you'll soon be able to game with your sub-three-pound laptop as you would with a smartphone or tablet. Let's just hope those Ultrabooks eventually stop ballooning back into straight-up notebook territory, eh? Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Confirmed: Intel's Ivy Bridge chips will support NFC
Well, looky here. We're reporting live from a keynote on Ultrabooks starring Intel's Mooly Eden, where the star exec just revealed that the company's forthcoming Ivy Bridge chips will support NFC, demoing a transaction involving a laptop and PayPass-enabled MasterCard. Suffice to say, we haven't really seen this technology incorporated into laptops, though it is reminiscent of the older TransferJet standard (not that that ever took off). Unfortunately, Chipzilla's otherwise being mum on details: it's too early to know which credit card companies, software developers and laptop makers are on board, but hopefully Intel's backing is enough to spur some innovation here. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Lenovo quietly outs the IdeaPad U300e, a $799 Ultrabook with a hybrid hard drive
We thought we'd seen everything Lenovo had to show here at CES. We thought wrong. In a tour of the company's showroom / trailer today, we spotted that gray laptop up there, hiding amid the X1 Hybrid, T430u Ultrabook and S200 netbook. That, friends, is the IdeaPad U300e, a cheaper, lesser-specced version of the U300s we reviewed last fall. Check our gallery below: it has the same aluminum chassis, comfortable keyboard and sprawling trackpad, though the ports appear to have played musical chairs. The only differences? For one, we're seeing the U300e (top, above the U300s) adds an Ethernet jack, something the U300s is missing. More importantly, though, the U300e costs $799, not $1,200, and instead of an SSD it sports a hybrid drive pairing a 500GB HDD with 32GB of flash storage -- essentially, the same setup you'll find in the $800 Acer Aspire S3. We're also told it'll run "next-generation" Intel processors, though Lenovo's stopping short of calling it Ivy Bridge, which Intel has yet to reveal. Not a bad deal, though we might still prefer the new U310, which has the all-important SD slot the U300s was missing, but still costs a hundred bucks less than this here U300e. Disagree with us? The U300e is expected to go on sale this month.
Toshiba shows off 14-inch Ultrabook, we go hands-on
It might not be obvious this early on in CES week, so forgive us for dropping a spoiler: you're going to see lots -- and we mean lots -- of 14-inch Ultrabooks. Big-screened things, some of them making room for optical drives and discrete graphics -- the sorts of systems we'd sooner call thin-and-lights than Ultrabooks. (Potato, potahto, are we right?) It's clear that overgrown Ultras going to be a thing, regardless of whether you buy into the marketing hype, and as of today you can count Toshiba as a proud member of the welcome wagon. The company is showing off a 14-incher here at CES, and though it's not ready to confirm specs, pricing or even the model name, we did get to spend a few quality minutes poking around a pre-production unit. So far, we know it will cost "well under" $1,000, and go on sale in the June time frame, just as the back-to-school shopping season kicks off. If you want the short story, you can skip straight to those hands-on shots below and check out our first impressions after the break. %Gallery-142764%
